he/him vi/vim Vintage 319 ppm CO2 Musician since the beginning, oddball, techie-but-luddite, biochar entrepreneur/evangelist, MMT proponent, deep green, outspoken, cantankerous and slightly twisted. Life goal: to see billionaires go extinct. Tolerance is a social contract.
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Published at
2024-09-23T10:15:09+02:00 Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens I kind of like the old-school energy of the big RE20 or RCA ribbon mic (plus there are very few things in the whole universe that sound better on some voices). I've got a few Shure ribbons that are decent and much less obtrusive in the frame. They do need a good preamp, though. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Handy bit of audio engineering trivia to support this point: Decent quality lapel (lavalier) mics have a special EQ curve designed into them to cancel out the resonance of the human chest cavity, so they sound best clipped on your front. Handheld mics, OTOH, are made to be held in front of your face. Know the difference and you'll sound better (and won't look like a knob). npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Dear French left: Thank you for rescuing the country as it stood on the precipice of fascist takeover! Whew! That was close. In return I give you absolute fuck all. Instead, I will foist on you a right-wing caretaker administration that will ensure you have no say in the government. The structural problems plaguing our nation will be cans kicked down the road and the far right extremists will organise on the back of our failure. It's all thanks to you! Regards, EM npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Does this factor in the health benefits from not being exposed to pathogens in the workplace? npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Just in case you missed it: Microsoft is pimping its weaponised bullshit generation to oil companies in order to help them find new places to drill. That's right. Using insane amounts of energy right here in the present to make it easier for the climate wreckers to wreck the climate even harder in the future. A gentle reminder to just say no to any and all companies that peddle this snake oil. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Willow water is a good, cheap way to stimulate rooting. Just mash a bundle of twigs and let them soak in some water, then use that to keep your cuttings damp. Make a new batch every few days as it gets whiffy. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens I see the Tobacco & Petroleum Union has come out swinging at Hipkins' renewed talk of wealth taxes. They are trotting out the "envy" line yet again. Thing is, most normal folk emphatically do not envy the wealthy. We just want them gone. Disparity drives dysfunction and in our early evolution into social creatures hoarding was an aberration, so we selected against it. Time to revisit the old wisdom. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens We are seeing this in Aotearoa. The loss of 75% of our native forest has interrupted the hydrological cycle and deepened summer dryness. When the rains do come, they're far more intense and they fall on unstable hillsides no longer held in place by intact forest. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens "What Millan fears most are the feedbacks. "Every unrealized summer storm, every failure of the system to eject its heat and release its water to the life below, not only diminishes that life, but leads to more powerful storms in fall, winter and spring. "Those storms then further erode what’s left of the land, deepening the cycle, as the land drifts ever closer to the critical threshold at which it collapses to desert." https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-07-17/millan-millan-and-the-mystery-of-the-missing-mediterranean-storms/ npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens They've changed over the years and it looks like the present-day cans all have boring vegetables on them. https://www.lameeklypodcast.com/episodesegments/el-pato https://mastodon.nz/system/media_attachments/files/113/104/487/904/302/771/original/c5a1473069a75495.jpg npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Bait and switch by Waka Kotahi. The replacement for the defunct Manawatū Gorge route was built with public funding, promised from the get-go that it would not be tolled. Lots of people who live in Tararua District for the cheaper rents commute daily to PN. This hits them where it hurts. And by WK's own admission, toll avoidance would see around 40% of drivers continue to use Saddle Rd and clog up the residential streets of Ashhurst with dangerous amounts of traffic. https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/projects/te-ahu-a-turanga/tur-tolling-consultation-brochure.pdf npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens On an entirely tangential note, one of my favourite brands of Mexican salsa (when we lived close to the border) was El Pato. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens I wonder if there were chinampas that long before the city was built. Seems like the ideal place for a duck character. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens We went from economic vandalism to economic terrorism (and these were the exact words I used in an oral submission not too long ago). This govt only knows how to immiserate 90% of the population in order to line the pockets of the 10%. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Nek minnit, a bill to define pi = 3. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Vale @npub1k65…pc0u You raised the bar in so many ways. We are going to miss you. #journalism #fediverse npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Bernard HIckey asks those getting tax cuts if they're really ok with what's being done to achieve them. https://open.substack.com/pub/thekaka/p/what-austerity-actually-means-and npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Neoliberalism is why the climate is spinning out of control. It's why we have a global extinction event underway. It's why marginalised people are being driven from their homelands, only to meet with hatred and violence where they land. But it's also why successive govts in this country have washed their hands of building essential infrastructure and regulating markets when they look and act like cartels. It has been an explicit decision to reward capital and throw us under the bus. 3/N npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens There's some truly brilliant technology being developed to use "waste" biomass, such as sawdust and chip, and turn it to useful energy efficiently and safely. It's next-gen steam power, proven under tough conditions, and it's Aotearoa made. But they need capital to ramp up development and production to get this installed in mills. And just where is all the investment money in this economy going? Residential property speculation. Not anywhere useful like SOLVING A CRISIS RIGHT NOW. 2/N npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens So far this morning I've had three separate conversations with colleagues about timber mills wanting to solve their energy woes. The list of opportunities is getting longer by the day. There are so many facets of this problem that infuriate me, and they all come back to the utter wreckage of public policy at the altar of "free markets." We have electricity shortages at the same time the gentailers booked half a billion in pure profits IN THE PAST SIX WEEKS. and it gets worse... 1/N npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens It's somewhere in the fuzzy region between malignant cult and mass formation psychosis. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Still getting my head around the torpedo attack on Whaikaha. Folding the bulk of the ministry's services provision into MSD is not only a massive setback for the community, but also a negative human rights move. MSD has a culture of blame and punishment. They use sanctions and other dehumanising tactics. The message beneficiaries are given is that it's their fault the system has cast them aside. Whaikaha was created to run disability services not only for the community, but by the community. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens A refresher for those following along at home: Karen Chhour is the far-right authoritarian extremist ideologue in charge of enacting forced indoctrination camps for troubled youth. She also gets upset when challenged about her radical policies and really wishes those mean MPs from TPM would stop making her cry. Toughen up, snowflake, and let's see if we can bounce a gold coin on your bed. You will also be presenting your shoes for polish inspection. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/progress-continues-military-style-academy-pilot npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens The coalition of cruelty is also carefully avoiding any accounting for all the ticking time bombs it has laid at the feet of the next generation, most notable the $20-30B of emissions abatement liabilities under our Paris Agreement commitments, coming due in just a few years. They're also driving away the people with the capability and skills to turn this country around. On this trajectory, Aotearoa's future is a dying cohort of boomer landlords with dribble cups being tended by robots. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Of course Loser Luxo and his minions are taking credit. But let's be honest about what they're patting themselves on the back for: Tanking the economy with brutal austerity and immiseration of thousands of already marginalised families. Throwing all of our investment eggs in the property speculation basket. House prices can only go up, eh. Gleefully omitting the transfer of costs (rates, power, insurance) that are eclipsing the paltry tax cuts. https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350378992/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-triumphant-over-ocr-cut-and-good-reason npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens This is sublime. Thank you. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens Neoliberalism has ruined this country and the younger generations know it. Since successive govts do bugger all about the problem, everyone with the means to leave is doing just that. Luxon's Losers are flooring the accelerator on this trend and their hatred of Wellington is turning our capital into a ghost town. Who will the landlords squeeze when all the renters are either destitute or gone? https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/12/record-shattering-numbers-of-young-people-leaving-new-zealand/ npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens TIL that a growth sector in the crypto world is hiring hackers to crack wallets, then hiring hitmen to punish them if they fail to deliver the goods. I hate this timeline and the grifters who populate it. https://www.404media.co/inside-the-com-world-war-robberies-brickings-and-drama/ npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens We lost a capable prime minister here in NZ thanks to vicious misogyny stoked by far right conspiracy peddlers and overseas trolls. It is another face of fascism and we will stop it dead in its tracks. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens I noticed something during my submission this morning that seemed a bit off at the time, and now I realise why. I always thought it was unremarkable for people to use te reo in their greeting at official events. I began my remarks with "Kia ora koutou. Ko Phil Stevens toku ingoa." To me, this is the bare minimum in a multicultural society. What I got later from Mark Cameron was a question with a convoluted intro highlighting my "use of the Maarie language" before getting to the point. WTAF npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens PEASANTS! The Lords of Commerce have Decreed, forthwith: That Ye shall be Favoured with Victuals and Sundries that cost a Pittance Less than the vile Merchants and Mongers would have Ye pay, but only on Certain Dayes and only if thou livest in the Faire Landes of the North. REJOICE! https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/07/big-supermarket-revamp-lays-groundwork-for-postcode-price-wars/ npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens To be fair, the latter becomes the former given time. Even better if you add wood chips. npub1zqszsqys7lh4rqy9snz8slxz2gyw67zap0f0g9acm25rlz2rprus7xcrve Phil Stevens So close and yet sofa.